It’s been a little while since I’ve blogged, but all of my writing lately has been on paper. It has been constant – I carry my journal everywhere I go. I have a lot on my heart lately and have been filling my time so differently these days, surrounding myself with all the “good stuff” I can find in this season of life with two little boys – reading lots of scripture, listening to a lot of inspirational/inspiring Christian podcasts, reading encouraging books.

Over Christmas break, I set goals for myself this year, all under the word “Listen.” I’ve always been one to jump at chances, be spontaneous, work toward big dreams.

That hasn’t changed.

But I’m taking this year to slow down and listen. Listen to God. There are a lot of things up in the air right now that I just can’t answer on my own. And so I’m continually seeking God. I’ve been filling my “fringe hours” (if you haven’t read Jessica Turner’s book, you should!) so much more intentionally, and that’s where I’ve been able to make time for me – whether writing, journaling, practicing flute, reading, whatever. As an introvert, I need these outlets to refuel after a full day of being around people at work and before a marathon afternoon/evening caring for my family. And even though I thought blogging was one of my favorite outlets, when I sat down with God, I realized that He had other intentions for my time in this season.

Listening to God, listening for God. His presence is all around me, and in my heart.

Listening to my kids.

Listening to my husband and praying for him.

And so I’ll use this blog a lot less frequently now. I still hope to capture seasons of my life, milestones of my boys, fun races I’ve run, that sort of thing – at least for now – so today’s post is just going to be a day-in-the-life. I loved writing these last year both during my maternity leave in 2014 and then again when I went back to work in 2015, and I don’t want to miss out on recording these days while my boys are still young! It helps me to remember that this IS just a season, and a good one at that! Here goes –

Monday, January 11, 2016

5 AM: My alarm goes off. My plan is to run on the treadmill… and miracle of miracles, baby is still asleep, so I actually might be able to! There are a lot of mornings I set my alarm to run, but baby wakes up before I do, so I can’t.

Baby stirs. I wait 15 minutes while I get dressed to run, just in case. He’s still asleep. I eat a Zone bar and drink a purple Gatorade.

5:20 AM: Treadmill. I keep it simple – no RunKeeper app or playlist to fiddle with while I run. Just my FitBit and iHeartRadio station and bloglovin’ to catch up on blogs I read.

5:45 AM: Finish running. Make myself breakfast (whole wheat English muffin, sunny-side-up egg, cheese, and smoked ham. Water, pomegranate juice, coffee). I read “For the Love” by Jen HatMaker until my husband joins me for breakfast – I usually eat on the way out the door and he gets up around 4 AM, so this never happens! I put my book down and we talk about the upcoming day and end up looking at the wood samples we stained last night, trying to decide on a stain for the new farmhouse table we are building together.

6:20 AM: shower, charge FitBit. Running super late. Usually I’m ready by 6:30 so that I can wake up E.

6:40 AM: Wake up my 3.5yo, E. We get ready together.

6:55 AM: Wake up my 15mo, S. I cannot believe he slept this long, although he was up late last night and is sick. I nurse him while sending E downstairs for breakfast #1 (they both will eat another breakfast at daycare). While I feed the baby, I brush his hair, clean up his face – he’s sick/draining/coughing a lot – log my morning for this blog post, and play around with FitBit settings. I’m participating in a Workweek Hustle with some random people I barely know.

We warm up my car and load our things – we now carry much less than we used to! The only thing not pictured are 2 bags of blankets and us!

7:21 AM: We leave the house. I start to listen to a podcast but decide instead to talk to my kids on the way to school – there will be a lot of changes in their classes today!

7:35 AM: We arrive at daycare, where S starts in a new “transition” class! I barely have time to get him all set up, and I have to leave him crying as I get E settled and head back out to my car. So much mom guilt. Luckily I am not the one crying!

7:40 AM: Turn on podcast and listen until I get to work.

7:56 AM: Arrive at work with 4 minutes to spare. I live much closer to my new job, and it starts later each day, so 8 AM is a new luxury for me! Luckily there are still places to park. I head inside, where I already have someone on the phone waiting to talk to me. And so my day begins! After teaching my morning classes, I tear my office apart searching for my thumb drive. No luck – so I’ll check at home and in the car this afternoon.

11:30 AM: Lunch time! I still have loose ends to tie up, and lunch groups, so I don’t join my team for lunch. I spend about half my lunchtime finishing up “For the Love” so that I can return it to the library when we go tonight. Then I go online to reserve several books about trains for my little guy – a strategic maneuver so that the books are ready for me to pickup on the shelf when my hands are full of boys. And then I write in my journal as I reflect on Romans 12: 6-8 and pray.

3:40 PM: My “me” time is so sacred to me these days that when work is over, I rush out the door as quickly as I can, delaying only to search my car for my thumb drive. Small victory (or fail?) – it was in my purse (and not my school bag, where it should be). Who even knows these days. My husband found the baby’s socks in the downstairs kitchen trashcan instead of his laundry hamper upstairs the other day.

3:45 PM: Home already! I am very intentional about my snacks this week and actually wrote out what I would have each day before going to the grocery store yesterday! Today is pomegranate juice, “healthy” popcorn, and yogurt-covered raisins – yum! I listen to a God-Centered Mom podcast as I tidy up a few things from breakfast, get some laundry organized and started, and JUST SIT ON THE COUCH for a few minutes thinking about the rest of the evening.

4:45 PM Realize I never made afternoon coffee and now it’s too late. I arrive at daycare to pickup my kids. I tend to wait until after they’ve gone outside on the playground with their friends to pick them up. It cuts out on what I call the “witching hour” meltdowns. No, thank you. The pickup process takes 15 minutes. We head straight to the library as promised – yesterday, I sat on the couch with my son and we planned out a fun activity for every afternoon this week, and he chose the library for Monday.

Last week was hard. Like, so so hard. I averaged about 4 hours of sleep per night, was in a bad mood, lost my ever-loving mind, and regretted how I handled things. So this week, I mapped out as much as I could on Sunday.

I am hoping to just run in the library and grab our books from the hold shelf so that the boys can play a bit, but they aren’t all ready, so I end up searching for them myself. Luckily, the boys are in great spirits thanks to the graham crackers I packed in my purse and a newfound shelf of books on street sweepers, fire trucks, and Curious George, so we stay at the library for 40 minutes before heading home.

6 PM: Arrive home, switch out some laundry, lay out the boys’ clothes for bedtime and school tomorrow, and change from work clothes into warmer clothes (we’re determined to save on our energy bill!).

6:15 PM: Dinner. My husband grills ham sandwiches and slices apples to serve on E’s “Great Day” plate from the Emily Ley shop – a super-easy meal! Tomorrow will be my turn, but for tonight, I enjoy the extra time with the kids.

6:40 PM: clean up kitchen while E flips through a new library book on the couch and S does who even knows what.

In the middle of dishes, E asks me to come read with him on the couch. I am there in a heartbeat – I’m trying not to let “tasks” come between these fleeting invitations! I also text a few friends/family. Especially Auntie, who just rode the Monorail at Disney!

7:15 PM: S has a poopy diaper – he gets changed and into the bath! Thank you, hubby!

7:30 PM: I desperately need a haircut. I cut my own bangs right over my sink.

7:45 PM: E needs a haircut, too, so I work on his hair while my husband gets the baby into pajamas, reads more books with him, and gets some things ready for tomorrow. I set up a borrowed iPad for him to watch Thomas & Friends. He has only ever seen this iPad once before – the last time I cut his hair – and he calls it a “big phone.” So he asks for a “big phone” to watch Thomas and Elmo during the haircut. I get to a stopping point and leave the rest to my husband and his clippers. I take a “before” photo:

8:17-8:39 PM: I nurse baby S to sleep while catching up with friends on Instagram/text while my husband gives E a second bath to get all the loose hair off his back. And baby S is OUT!! Small miracle, victory, whatever you want to call it – I’m usually in there with him til long after 10:30! His new “transition” class must have worn him out!

8:40 PM: Unheard of! I am almost overwhelmed with the idea of having a few extra hours tonight! First, I pack my lunch for Tuesday. It has to be a lunch I won’t need to heat up, because I’ll have more counseling small groups tomorrow during my lunch time with no access to a microwave.

8:48 PM: Put cloth diapers on their last rinse cycle

8:49 PM: Read 2 library books with E in his bunk bed and then turn him over to his Daddy, who will read more books and stay with him til he’s closer to falling asleep.

9:10-9:17PM: fold cloth diapers, pack S’s diaper bag for tomorrow. I read through the kids’ baby grams from school to see what they’re learning this week and what things they’ll need to bring in. I set several reminders with Siri for the end of the week (bring in show-n-tell items, take home and wash their school blankets, etc.). S’s baby gram also lists the yucky symptoms he had throughout the day, and his teacher noted that he coughed for all of nap time. 😦

Back upstairs, I get my school things ready for tomorrow and text with a friend. Then I start this blog post.

10:40 PM – finish writing this post. I realized I haven’t paid any attention to any of The Bachelor tonight, even though I had wanted to. And I haven’t added any pictures or edited this post. Another reason I haven’t been blogging!

11:15 PM: Baby is stirring. Post is done. I wake up my husband to ask about S wheezing. We listen over the baby monitor. He assures me that he gave him Zarbee’s Cough Syrup before bedtime. Bless him.

11:34 PM: Off to brush my teeth and read from the new library book I picked up today. Goodnight.

“The days are long, but the years are short.” I wouldn’t trade this for anything.